1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information storage medium, and more particularly, to a method of determining whether a defect exists on an information storage medium, a recording/reproducing apparatus using the same, and an information storage medium.
2. Related Art
The number of defects on a rewritable information storage medium increases due to fingerprints and dust according to use of the medium. Defect blocks occurring during the use of the medium are managed and registered in a defect information area, and a host or a drive system is informed of the defect blocks. As a result, a host or a drive system does not allocate data to these defect blocks, and records data only in non-defect blocks. However, when the number of defect blocks increases, a user typically re-initializes the medium.
In specific situations, when the user removes the fingerprints or dust from the surface of the medium, the defect blocks registered in the defect information area may be determined as non-defect blocks through a verify-after-write process. If the re-initialization of the rewritable information storage medium is necessary, the drive system determines whether entire blocks in recordable areas on the medium or the defect blocks registered in the defect information area are defect blocks through the verify-after-write process.
However, if all the blocks on the medium or the defect blocks registered in the defect information area are defect blocks through the verify-after-write process, the re-initialization can be very time intensive, which can inconvenient the user.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide techniques in which defects and potential defects occurring on an information storage medium can be effectively managed and re-initialization can be quickly executed without a verify-after-write process.